Dec 20, 2014

Wilde Times

WILDE TIMES is the fourth and final novel in the spicy contemporary romance series about four sexy brothers, their small-town bar and their local country band. WILDE TIMES can be read as a STAND ALONE NOVEL or as part of the SERIES.

In high school, Jake Wilde was the star football player, who led his team to win the state championship. Now ten years later he’s the manger of his family’s bar, Haymakers, but the residents of rural Old Town still talk about his glory days in high school.

Harley Davis was always the girl-next-door…literally. Her family was neighbors with the Wilde family and the Wilde boys treated her like the little sister they never had. But Harley spent her adolescence dreaming that she’d one day be Jake Wilde’s girl.

She never anticipated that she’d be one of the many girls Jake sleeps with. It breaks Harley’s heart a little bit more every time Jake hooks up with someone other than her, which happens on a regular basis.

How much longer will Harley believe that having even a small piece of Jake is better than having no Jake at all?

“That’s some ring,” I state loudly enough to get the woman’s attention.

The woman looks a few years older than me, maybe in her mid-twenties. She’s sitting at the bar with two other young women who look like they could be her sisters. She looks vaguely familiar. We probably attended Old Town High together. I didn’t exactly pay attention to the girls who were older than me. Not that I paid much attention to the girls who were in my own grade either. We were more of a mutual hate society.

Right now it’s slow at Haymakers, the bar that the Wilde brothers own. It’s been in their family for generations, and to this day it’s the only bar in Old Town.

I’m now the only person who works here who isn’t a blood relation, or soon to be related by marriage.

“Celebrating?” I ask.

She shoves the ring in my face. “I just got engaged.” She is all smiles.

“Congratulations. What can I get you?”

“Is Jake around?” She scans the nearly empty bar. It’s not even four in the afternoon yet. The place won’t pick-up for at least another hour.

“He’s in the back room.” I have no idea what she wants with Jake. She doesn’t look like the type who he usually hooks up with. She’s much too prim and proper. She looks more like someone Cooper would go for.

But he’s engaged too. The best ones are always taken

The woman’s eyes narrow and she says, “I really wanted to share my good news with him.”

It looks to me like she wants to shove the ring in his face and I have an idea why. Jake has a reputation for humping and dumping and she was probably one of his casualties. What she doesn’t realize is that even if being with him meant the world to her, chances are it most likely meant nothing to him. He probably won’t even remember sticking his dick in her. And I can guarantee he won’t remember her name.

“He’ll probably be out a little later,” I say. “If you want to stick around.”

“We’ll have three beers,” the woman says. “Whatever you have on draft.”

“Budweiser okay?”

The three women all nod. They don’t look like heavy drinkers. I’m willing to bet they’re two-drink-max kind of girls. There are three types of females who normally come into Haymakers. The regulars: most of them are older folks, my parents’ age or older, who’ve been coming to the bar for years. They usually have a few beers while they eat lunch or dinner. Then there are the packs: groups of girls who come in the celebrate weddings or sometimes even divorces. They’re usually two-drink-maxers, especially if they’re with a group of girls from work. Then there are the girls who come in to get drunk and laid. They’re usually in pairs, or sometimes trios. They usually drink until they get loaded enough for any guy in the bar to look good enough to screw.

After they finish their beers the women are a lot chattier than when they entered the place.

“Another round?” I ask.

The woman frowns. “I was hoping Jake would be around by now.”

Me too, I think, because I can’t wait to see what this woman has to say to him. I’m pretty sure that whatever it is, it’ll be a show.

The woman leans down close to me and whispers, “He took my virginity.”

I can’t help but smile. “Join the club.”

She points a swaying finger at me. “You too?”

I nod.

She gives me a puzzled look. “Were you twelve?”

“Nineteen,” I admit, but I’m not sure why. I’ve never actually told anyone I was a virgin until I was an adult and that I lost my virginity to a man-whore who didn’t even know it was my first time. But I feel insulted by her insinuations that I look like a slut.

“You were nineteen?” She sounds like she doesn’t believe me.

I place my hands on my hips and stare at her. “Why is that so hard to believe?”

She opens her mouth, but no words come out. Then she stammers a few times with some, “Well, ums.”

“You’re kind of dressed a little provocatively,” her friend says.

I lean in so the three women will hear me. “Did you see a brand new Mustang convertible in the parking lot when you came in?”

“The cherry red one?” the friend asks.

I nod.

“We saw it,” the woman says.

“I work in a bar. I was able to buy that car because I dress like this. Big tits and a tight ass earn large tips.”

The women are all staring at me with eyes as wide as pie plates.

“Did someone say big tits and a tight ass?” a man’s voice booms.

All of us turn at the same time to see Jake Wilde approach. He’s almost thirty, but he’s still got the good looks and charm of the guy who everyone adored in high school. He was the star football player and the most popular guy on campus. All the guys wanted to be him and all the girls wanted to date him, including me. People at Old Town High still talk about Jake Wilde even more than ten years after he graduated. Of course I was just a kid when Jake was in high school. He treated me more like the pesky little girl next door until I finally graduated and started working at Haymakers.

After their parents died and left them the family bar, the Wilde boys voted to have Jake manage the place. He’s good at getting people into Haymakers and making sure they have a good time. Unfortunately he’s not quite as good at the day-to-day operations, like bookkeeping and accounting. Fortunately, Cooper is a Wall Street financial wiz and has gotten Jake out of jams on more than a few occasions.

I’d help him, if he asked, but he never has. I was a straight A student in high school and even got full scholarships to several Ivy League universities. Math was my best subject. And I’m a wiz with computers. I could easily handle the books. But the only thing Jake sees me as is a waitress and his personal plaything that he can use when he wants to scratch a certain itch. I know I shouldn’t let him use me, but he’s the only man I’ve ever loved. I’ve been in love with him since I was a kid, and I can’t imagine ever being with anyone else. So having a piece of Jake, when he feels like screwing me, is better than having no Jake at all.

Romance novelist Savannah Young grew up in rural northwest New Jersey in a place very similar to the fictional Old Town, which is featured in her books. When she's not at her computer creating spicy stories, Savannah is traveling to exotic locales or spending time with her husband and their bloodhounds. Savannah also writes under the pen names Dakota Madison, Sierra Avalon and Ren Monterrey.